Electricity

Leyden Jars and Capacitors

What is the Leyden jar?

Water can be stored in a jar. In what can charge be stored? In November 1745 Ewald Jurgen von Kleist (1700-1748), dean of a cathedral in Pomerania, put a nail into a small medicine bottle and charged it with an electrical machine. When he touched the nail he received a strong shock. In March 1746 Pieter van Musschenbroek (1692-1761), a professor at the University of Leyden in Holland, performed a similar experiment with the device, now called the Leyden jar.